


noli mei oblivisci

by RangerDew



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Childhood Friends, FUCK i need a title quick think think, Gen, M/M, Minor Character Death, i have not played bl route i don't know anything about dimitri's parents except from spoilers sorry, i made those bits up, i mean sort of fairytale? there's a bloodline curse and everything is european, just as a warning ig
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 09:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20561942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RangerDew/pseuds/RangerDew
Summary: When Dimitri was seven, his tutor died.He didn’t know what was happening. All he knew was that his family was in a frenzy.He hears the maids whispering about him, saying that it was impossible, the tutor was alive one minute and then suddenly he keeled over. What could it have been?Dimitri does not understand. He is not quite old enough to understand what dying is, either, and day by day he tentatively waits for his tutor to show up again.The tutor never does.(and Dimitri's life spirals downhill from there.)





	noli mei oblivisci

If Dimitri looks back far enough, he can see memories of himself with another little boy, playing by a creek.

He doesn’t remember the boy’s name, or even what he looked like, but he did remember that those were the happiest days of his life.

He can’t quite pinpoint what they used to  _ do,  _ either. He vaguely recalls attempts at skipping stones and climbing trees. A distant memory of a laugh.

Those are the only safe bits in his life. The only untouched bits in his life. He likes to sit in those memories and ponder them, on his loneliest days.

He wonders what has become of the boy now. He hopes he is well, or at least, better off than Dimitri is.

_ (and at the very, very least, still alive at all. If Dimitri knows anything, it’s that things don’t end well for people he’s close to.) _

But today is a morning like no other. Dimitri wakes up, pulls himself off the dirt. Makes his way out of his little burrow. Harvests the local weeds. He’s thinking of starting a farm, maybe.

And if the little voice in his head tells him he’s lonely, he ignores it. This is a better life than he could have ever imagined for himself.

He listens to the birds sing, the wind rustling the leaves. A little part of him that’s still religious prays to the Goddess, thanks her for giving him this life.

And he starts his day. 

  
  
  


When Dimitri was seven, his tutor died.

He didn’t know what was happening. All he knew was that his family was in a frenzy. 

He hears the maids whispering about him, saying that it was impossible, the tutor was alive one minute and then suddenly he keeled over. What could it have been?

He hears his father instructing a servant to mail off a large sum of money to the tutor’s household. A plea for them to keep quiet.

Dimitri does not understand. He is not quite old enough to understand what dying is, either, and day by day he tentatively waits for his tutor to show up again. 

The tutor never does.

His parents hire him a new tutor after that, a wise and kind old lady who gives him a piece of candy whenever he answers a question correctly. She, luckily, does not die, though she does resign when Dimitri expressed his feelings of fondness towards her.

Days pass peacefully. Dimitri spends his time playing in the grass and reading books rather than being tutored. 

Three years later, when Dimitri is eleven, his mother dies.

It’s out of the blue. One minute, she’s sitting at the dinner table with him, waiting on Father, who seemed to be busier than ever these days. The next minute, she had fallen face-down into their stew, and servants were running about hurriedly to contact the doctor and Dimitri was shaking his mom, shaking and shaking and  _ Please wake up, please wake up, look how they’re making such a fuss, mother, and we were going to have dinner with Father tonight, Mother, please wake up. _

There was no response. 

The next day, he waited for news of Mother’s condition. And the next. And the next. Before he knew it, he was eating dinners alone and his father wouldn’t look him in the eye anymore.

He didn’t understand. 

A little over one year later, his father remarries. Dimitri’s new mother is beautiful, like she was sculpted after the Goddess herself, though a bit cold. She never so much as spared Dimitri a second glance. Dinners were still eaten alone. 

Two years later, Dimitri is fourteen. He’s long come to understood he’s not wanted around the household, though, as the heir, he still makes a point to study and train. In his lonely years, he’s combed every corner of the library. He’s learned how to cook, how to do magic, how to camp, various battle strategies. He’s never gotten to apply any of it, though, and he’s not sure he really sees a reason, what with his father and stepmother both fervently ignoring him.

One day, though, his stepmother approaches him. Asks him if they would like to cook together.

Dimitri is eager to jump at the opportunity. At the end of the hour, the kitchen’s destroyed and dinner is not prepared, but Dimitri and his stepmother are both rolling on the floor laughing. 

_ Now this,  _ Dimitri thinks,  _ is not something you can learn from a book.  _

He and his stepmother grow closer after that. They don’t always cook together, but often Dimitri finds them gardening, painting, doing magic, and one time, she even offered to watch him spar. 

Dimitri finds that this is what happiness is. He thinks he’s felt it once, long ago, in a time he can’t remember. 

Deep green eyes and tanned skin come to his mind. He pushes it away.

Good things never seemed to last long for him, though. On one of those rare, rare good days, his stepmother has convinced his father to come out and watch him spar. Dimitri’s giving it his all, he has to, so that his father will see how much he’s grown. How worthy he is. And his father is almost looking impressed.

Until his stepmother falls to the floor.

Dimitri’s father catches her mid-air, but she doesn’t move. He shakes her. Her body hangs limp.

His father’s shouts are increasing in franticity. Dimitri cannot do anything but stare at the scene, frozen with fear, lance cracked and broken between his fingers.

His father’s indifference forms into a deep resentment after that. 

He calls Dimitri to his room often, and Dimitri will come in, only to be hit with insults and names that ring in his head at night when he sleeps. His father always looks tired when he calls on him, eyes bloodshot, hair messed up. Nothing like the image of the noble he puts out. 

He’s yelling at Dimitri one day, about what a horrid, unwanted creature he is, when suddenly, he collapses on his desk.

Dimitri rushes forward. Shakes him. Shakes him again. Next thing he knows, he’s yelling for a servant and horrified gasps sound throughout the mansion.

His father’s assistant refuses to give the seat of the house to him. Instead, a priest is brought in to check Dimitri over. 

When the exam finishes, he barely has any time to protest before his father’s assistant kicks him out of the house.

Now this is really it for him. He has no food. No money. No books to read. Only the clothes on the back and the knowledge already in his head. 

However, he tries to find comfort where he can. He begins to frequent a library not far from his old home. 

The library is not as big as the one at the mansion, but he still finds solace and new knowledge in it. He, perhaps, finds a bit too much solace. The old lady at the library finds him there one day, asleep at one of the tables two hours after the library ought to have closed.

She allows him to live there after that. Dimitri thanks her profusely every time he says goodbye to her, but she insists that it would be immoral to let a young boy sleep outside every night. 

He starts to work at the library. He organizes the books, dusts the floor, and gives the lady company in her break times. Apparently, she was rather lonely. Her family was off studying at a school somewhere off far, and she was left alone to take care of the library. Dimitri consoled her, letting her know that it’s okay, you can always find a new family. They grow close.

Until the old lady, too, falls one day and never wakes up.

The townspeople are furious. They festered too much anger, needed someone to blame.

His father’s assistant sent out a personal newsletter pointing right to Dimitri.

Officially, he’s on run now. There are townspeople with suspicious eyes and weapons everywhere he turns. The influence of his father’s house was large. The surrounding area was no longer safe for him. 

He hears them call him names, when he’s hiding.  _ Beast, bloodline cursed, monster. Don’t go near him, now. If you see him, call the House. They’ll take care of it. _

It slowly dawns on Dimitri that maybe the sudden deaths he’s witnessed do have some connection.

He grew attached to them. They, perhaps, grew attached to him. 

He prays it isn’t true. Is he really destined to such a cruel, lonely life? 

He’s huddled in an alley one day, hair matted, stomach empty. 

“Hey, pick your head up.”

There’s a boy about his age standing in front of him. He looks absolutely furious.

“I’ve heard about you. Are you really going to let yourself fall like this? Don’t you want to become stronger?”

_ You came out all this way and found me just to tell me that?  _ Dimitri wants to say. He doesn’t. Just stares at the boy in shock.

The boy groans. “Oh, don’t tell me you’ve lost your sense of speech, too. You absolute animal. I had thought that maybe the rumors were at least a little bit false.

Dimitri can feel the boy’s interest in him waning. Desperately, he speaks up. “I can talk.” 

The boy almost looks impressed. “Good. Now, are you going to let yourself be defeated?”

Dimitri shakes his head.

“Alright. Follow me.” 

“But…”

“I thought you were above believing street rumors.” 

Dimitri doesn’t want to let this new boy down. 

He leaves his rationality behind.

The boy trains with him, sneaks him bread every day. Dimitri is too scared to let himself settle down into a routine, but he accepts the kindness nonetheless.

A week later, the boy, too, collapses.

This time, the villagers  _ know  _ it’s him. Rumors blazed throughout the area, sightings of Dimitri and the boy training together, eating bread. Their anger is stoked higher than ever.

Dimitri’s regret is stoked, too. Now he knows. He shouldn’t have been careless. They were all right about him.

And so he runs. He runs and runs and runs. He won’t even let them catch up to him, he’s sure he never wants another human near him again, it’s not safe. He flees until he can no longer see houses behind him and he’s surrounded by the trees, the dirt, the sky, the clouds, and no people he can grow close to.

It’s finally safe. Safe for him. Safe for everyone.

It’s a bit comforting, in a way. Now he can finally settle down.

After a day of rest, he starts about fashioning a shelter. There’s no way he’s letting those years of book knowledge go to waste, after all. 

He looks up at the sky. It’s mostly clear, though clouds form pretty wisps across the blue background.

Finally, he’s all alone.

(It doesn’t feel like a win at all.) 

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't played bl route and i got to the timeskip in gd before i was like "wait. i'm starting over" bc i lost half my units early on in gd and the monastery felt lonely post-timeskip since most of the students were from other houses so as a result i don't know anything but i hope you like this fic lmao enjoy


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